Britain’s fertility regulator said the first babies created using an experimental technique combining DNA from three people have been born, in an effort to prevent the children from inheriting rare genetic diseases.
Britain’s Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority said fewer than five babies have been born this way, but no further details have been released to protect the families’ identities. The news was first reported by the Guardian newspaper.
The U.K. was the first country in the world to adopt legislation in 2015 specifically regulating such methods, which help prevent women with faulty mitochondria — the energy source in a cell — from passing on to their babies defects that can result in diseases such as muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, heart problems and intellectual disabilities.
About one in 200 children in Britain is born with a mitochondrial disorder.
For a woman with faulty mitochondria, scientists take the genetic material from her egg or embryo. They then transfer that into a donor egg or embryo that still has its healthy mitochondria but has had the rest of its key DNA removed.
The fertilized embryo is then transferred into the womb of the mother. The genetic material from the donated egg comprises less than 1% of the child’s genetics.
